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The Hindu minority
in Bangladesh, that survived the infamous genocide of 1971,
is again the victim of terrorism, murder and religious cleansing.
Supporters of the current Bangladeshi government led by Khaleda
Zia of the conservative Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
and Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, unleashed the
most recent cycle of violence and terror focused on Hindus
following the elections of October 1, 2001. Hindus in Bangladesh
have traditionally supported the secular Awami League led
by Sheikh Hasina and had been threatened by the BNP-Jamaat
combine even before the elections to not vote for the League.
(i) Undermining the foundation of Bangladeshi democracy, communities
where Hindus voted in large numbers were targeted by the victorious
BNP-Jamaat militants for rape, murder and forced exodus for
having exercised the right to vote without interference. Exact
figures are unavailable as human rights investigators tracking
Hindu disappearances have been detained, (ii) but estimates
are that tens of thousands of Hindus have been gang-raped,
murdered and driven from their homes.
Hindus have been a disappearing
minority in Bangladesh well before the latest spate of violence
in 2001. The narrative that describes the vanishing of Hindus
that comprised 31% of the population in 1947 and dwindled
to a meager 9% in 2002 is replete with human rights abuses,
atrocities and forced ethno-religious cleansing. At the time
of Partition in 1947, the Hindu population in East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh) was about 31 percent. (iii) By 1961 Hindus
were 19 percent of the population. By 1974 their numbers had
further reduced to 14 percent. And in 2002 it was estimated
that the Hindu population was about 9 percent of the total.
(iv) Rarely mentioned as more than a footnote in the history
of the late 20th century, 2.5 million Hindus were slaughtered
and 10 million Hindus fled as refugees into India during a
systematic genocide in 1971 by the then Muslim East Pakistan
Army. (v) Reminiscent of the Jewish holocaust, Hindu homes
were marked by a yellow “H” to guide the marauding
army to their targets. (vi) Over the next 30 years, thousands
of Hindu temples were destroyed (357 in 1992 alone), Hindus
were systematically disenfranchised from holding political
power, and prejudicial legislation ensured a precarious existence
for Hindus until full-scale violence erupted after 2001. The
Vested Property Act of 1972 that dispossessed Hindus of 1.05
million acres of land, and forced them to flee as refugees,
has only been partially remedied.
International human rights
organizations have been remiss in acknowledging the full extent
of the genocide. While Amnesty International has procured
significant factual data, the State Department-supported United
States Commission on International Religious Freedom provides
only limited documentation of ongoing atrocities against Hindus
in Bangladesh.
The Hindu American Foundation
(HAF) believes strongly that the perilous status of Hindus
in Bangladesh must be acknowledged and categorically addressed
by the government of the United States of America. As such,
HAF urges the following:
1)
Unequivocal condemnation of the human rights violations perpetrated
by the current BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government;
2) Recognition and understanding of the genocide and atrocities
endured by the Hindu minority in Bangladesh;
3)
That the Bangladesh government must take all steps to ameliorate
the conditions of Hindu refugees within Bangladesh and create
conditions conducive to the repatriation of refugees displaced
into India;
4)
That Bangladesh must complete an independent inquiry into
the most recent Hindu persecutions following the October 1,
2001 elections. The Bangladesh judiciary has mandated an impartial
inquiry, yet no public disclosures have been forthcoming at
the termination of three years.
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(i)
Amnesty International Report on Bangladesh, December 1, 2001
(ii) Report by Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network, December
12, 2001
(iii) Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities http://www.hrcbm.org/
(iv) S.K. Datta, “The Recent Plight of Minorities in
Bangladesh: A Post-election Perspective”. Paper presented
by the former Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, India
in an international seminar organized by the Centre for Research
in Indo-Bangladesh Relations, Kolkata, 28 January 2002.
(v) Crisis in South Asia - A report by Senator Edward
Kennedy to the Subcommittee investigating the Problem of Refugees
and Their Settlement, Submitted to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee,
November 1, 1971, U.S. Govt. Press, pp.6-7.
(vi) The Pakistani Slaughter That Nixon Ignored by
Sydney Schanberg, New York Times, May 3, 1994.
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